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ON THE 



CHARACTER 



AND 



PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



DEWITT CLINTON. 



DISCOURSE 



ON THE 



CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



DEWITT CLINTON, 



DELIVERED 

BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 

AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY, 6th MAY, 1829; 



BY 

JAMES RENWICK, M. A. 

Professor of Natural Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. ' 



"* NEW-YORK: 
G. & C. & H. CARVILL. 



1829. 












right whereof they claim as proprietors, m befo |he 

«A Discourse on the Character an, Pub 'C Se »' l . et « ^versary, 6th May, 1329; by JameB 

sssr-t f^s* rias^« y - &T' pub " hed ai iho 

B mt of LaM by ■?«"»»« '"" 'T'Jm Suoned." And .!•» »•• ■"> A «. «"""'"'• A " *?' ' 

vb&za2S&'X3S l z as. ssjre .... « - **— ««* 

and etching historical and other prints. D; RIC ,- j. BE TTS, 

C?erfc o/ tfe Swifter* District cf ]Se»-l or h. ^ ■ 



Ludwig & Tolefree, Printers. 



DISCOURSE 



Another anniversary of our association has arrived. 
We are again assembled in these halls to renew the ties 
that bind us to our common Alma Mater, and those, not 
less dear that exist among us as alumni. The associations 
of our youth are here to be revived ; and we here meet to 
hail as brothers, not only those who along with us pursued 
the paths of learning, or followed us in them, but those 
who held out the example our young exertions were once 
proud to emulate. 

Here, at least, however varied may be our pursuits or 
opposite our callings — nay, although political opposition 
may divide, or rivalry separate us, we can unite in the 
feelings of a common interest, and congratulate each other 
on the return of the epoch of our union, and of the day 
whence our elder brethren date the commencement of 
their honourable and useful career. Permit me to join in 
these friendly salutations, in the greetings of those who 



often far estranged by the business of life, are yet happy 
to re-awaken the tender recollections of juvenile intimacy. 
Brother alumni, allow me to express the satisfaction I feel 
at seeing so many of my former associates, so many of my 
younger friends, so many, may I say it, of my affectionate 
pupils here assembled ; while the venerable band of our 
elder brethren also appears to honour our celebration, 
undiminished in number since our last anniversary. 

Such at least would have been my greeting, had this 
address been delivered a few hours sooner. But at this 
very moment, a train of mourners is conveying to the tomb 
of his ancestors, one of the few survivors of that venerable 
band,* the last of a name illustrious in the ancient annals 
of our province, but in whom the conscious dignity of high 
birth, was tempered and illustrated by polished manners, 
and the graces which a finished education can alone 
bestow. 

Gratitude that we count numbers but little diminished, 
is a feeling too earnest to be controlled ; and, indeed, the 
pleasure we experience in saluting those whom we find 
present, is not more intense than the anxiety with which 
we inquire for the fate of those whom we miss in this 
assembly. Have any of our number suffered in health or 
happiness since our last meeting 1 Has death called from 
the path of usefulness, the ripened growth of manly talent, 
or nipped the bud of youthful promise 1 If so, then before 

* Frederick Philipse, Esq. of Philipstown. 



we enter into the festivities of the day, is our tribute of 
mournful recollection, or of affectionate admiration due. 

Of all the objects which an association such as ours 
can propose, none is more useful, none can be more inter- 
esting, than thus annually to commemorate the worth 
of the departed. Subjects of general and public interest 
are not indeed unsuited to the purposes of our meeting ; 
our institution has produced those who have filled with 
honour to themselves, and advantage to the country, the 
most exalted stations of public life, or have risen to the 
height of reputation in those professions emphatically 
called the learned. Such men it is to be hoped will still 
continue to issue from these halls ; and when they shall 
be called upon to address you, the scope of the institution 
admits — nay, their associates will expect, that they shall 
treat of subjects with which the business of their life has 
rendered them familiar. Instruction and eloquence have 
thus flowed from the discourses of my predecessors in the 
honourable appointment of orator of your anniversary. 
But to lament the untimely fate of youthful talent ; to 
rescue from oblivion the deeds of modest and unobtrusive 
usefulness ; to celebrate the praises of public benefactors ; 
are topics which seem to be exactly suited to the day and 
its associations. It cannot in truth be a day of unalloyed 
pleasure. If it recall to our recollection the happy period 
when young, ardent, and impetuous, we entered the arena 
of the more than Olympian contest, where not only bodies 
but minds struggle for the honours and rewards, which 



8 

fortune often bestows with no impartial hand ; if it bring 
to mind the hopes, that thought no office too high, no 
wealth too enormous, no literary glories too lofty to be 
reached by our exertions. It also recalls the memory of 
the chilling of those youthful aspirations, the checking of 
those lofty hopes, and the gradual intrusion of the dark 
realities of life, into the picture coloured in rainbow tints 
by our youthful imaginations. 

In a more especial manner does this celebration 
awaken the remembrance of those with whom we jointly 
received the instructions of the same teachers, but who 
have been snatched from the world before the expectations 
of their Alma Mater were realized ; or of those of more 
advanced standing, who, although full of honours and glory, 
have been called from the fields of their usefulness, too 
soon for their friends and their country. 

If such thoughts are excited by the very nature of our 
meeting, let them not be repressed. The value of the 
living friend is enhanced by the memory of him that it is 
dead ; and we now hail with more of intense pleasure the 
few survivors of a numerous class, than we should some 
years since have greeted the whole. Here, as in all other 
cases, our sorrows tend to heighten our enjoyments ; and 
the temperate conviviality of our banquet will be the better 
relished, that we have paid our just tribute of respect to 
to those whose places know them no longer. 

Such are the views with which I acceded to the request 
of your committee, to deliver before you on this occasion a 



9 

discourse in honour of one of our departed associates ; 
departed indeed before our last meeting, but at too short 
an interval to admit of his worth being then commemorated. 
Many of you there are, more competent than I to this 
task ; more learned, more eloquent, more in the habit of 
addressing a public assemblage ; many more intimate with 
the illustrious deceased, the close associates of his private 
life, the followers of his political fortunes. But why such 
a one was not selected, it became not me to inquire ; 
and the very sense I entertained of my own unfitness 
enhanced the compliment paid me, and precluded my 
declining what I feel as an honour of the most gratifying 
description. To be asked to address you ere so many of my 
seniors have performed that task, to be the first to whom 
an opportunity has been offered of fulfilling this interesting 
but mournful duty of our association, and more than all, 
to have such a theme assigned me, are favours for which 
I am far more indebted to your kindness than to my own 
merit. 

It has then become my melancholy privilege, to be 
the organ to express your regrets at the loss of the most 
distinguished of our members, who, if he had lived long 
enough for glory and an enduring reputation, died in the 
pride of his strength, and the acme of his mental vigour. 
If, indeed, it be not only a matter of duty, but of feeling, 
that we shall commemorate our departed associates, rarely 
will occasions present themselves where the tribute is so 

appropriate or so justly due. No alumnus of this institu- 

2 



10 

tion has ever filled a greater space in the eye of the public 
than the late Dewitt Clinton ; none has contributed more 
to the honour of his country, none so much to the pros- 
perity of his native state ; while we of the younger order 
of graduates, whose acquaintance with our alma mater, 
even by tradition, hardly extends beyond the time of her 
change of name, look up to him as the first matriculated 
student of Columbia College. 

What however render our expressions of respect most ap- 
propriate, his public acts and national services, make the task 
an arduous one. Every quarter of the Union has teemed 
with eulogies of our departed associate ; and it is hopeless 
to attempt to elicit new views of his character, or invent new 
expressions to emblazon his exalted worth. Nor would 
a simple biographical sketch possess either novelty or in- 
terest, were I to have recourse to such a mode of occupying 
your attention. The task of writing a memoir of the life of 
of Clinton, has already been performed by one, who, by long 
personal intimacy, by constant observation of his character, 
and by the most industrious research, has done all that talent, 
affection, and zeal could perform.* To this duty he was 
called by the united voice, of the literary and scientific in- 
stitution of which Clinton was so long the illustrious head ; 
. of the fathers of our city, over whose deliberations Clinton 
had long presided ; and of the citizens at large, who 
mourned the loss of the most conspicuous of their number. 

* David Hosack, M. D. F. R. S. whose memoir is already before the public. 



11 

His family has conferred the appointment of Biographer of 
Clinton, upon one distinguished alike hy station and by ta- 
lent, with whose duties it would be improper in me to 
interfere, with whose talents and opportunities it would be 
presumption in me to compete.* 

But although his literary and scientific fellows, his former 
civic compeers, and the public in general, have paid their 
tribute of remembrance through so appropriate a channel ; 
although the affection of his family has named a biographer 
to record those services which will form to his remotest 
descendant an escutcheon of honour ; the Alumni of Co- 
lumbia College have a duty to perform in their collective 
capacity, and owe to their alma mater that they shall not 
refrain from bearing their part in the general mourning at 
his loss ; their testimony of regard for their illustrious 
brother ; their assent to the general acclaim which pro- 
nounces him first and worthiest of their members. 

Like the beautiful and delicate insect, which for a single 
day in each year whitens our trees with its pinions, and at 
eve strews the ground with the snowy relics of its short-lived 
happiness, our association has but an ephemeral existence ; on 
but one day can it act or move, assume the livery of sorrow, 
or bear the badges of joy. This short and fleeting life it 
for the present year devotes to the remembrance of Clinton. 



* The Hon John C. Spencer. 



12 

Universal custom might lead me first to speak of his 
descent and lineage. The industrious research of the author 
of the memoir to which I have already referred, traces 
these to an English gentleman who espoused the royal 
cause, in the time of the first Charles, and losing his 
property in the failure of the fortunes of that monarch, 
sought new fields of enterprize in Ireland. Other circum- 
stances would lead us to infer, that a heraldic antiquary 
might deduce the line from those whom Englishmen con- 
sider as the founders of their nobility, the conquerors of 
Hastings. But our country admits no such titles to 
honour, rarely can the merit of the progenitor advance the 
interest even of a worthy descendant ; never can it be 
permitted to palliate the failings, or cast a veil over the 
vices and degeneracy of the unworthy. 

Yet so far as our country will admit of pride of birth, 
the family of Clinton was as illustrious as a republic can 
know. His father, and still more his uncle, had distinguished 
themselves in times of danger, difficulty, and dismay, as sol- 
diers, patriots, and statesmen. In a country where'every man 
must be the maker of his own character, and in most cases 
the architect of his own fortune, one's immediate progeni- 
tors are all that can influence his fate, or determine his use- 
fulness. Thus far Clinton may have been considered for- 
tunate, but far more so, in having been born soon enough 
to enjoy the advantage of the example of these two illustrious 
men, and in having witnessed their labours and exertions, 
while the success of the honourable cause they had espoused 



13 

was yet doubtful ; while their united energies of mind and 
body were strained to the utmost, in order to obtain a 
happy issue to the enterprize in which they were engaged. 

If then the birth and connexions of Clinton had any 
influence in determining his future usefulness, it was rather 
by shewing him illustrious examples of devotion to the cause 
of his country, and models of perseverance through good 
and evil report, than by facilitating his introduction into 
public life — Nay, had he entered it without the benefit of 
such experience, his early attainment of office and honours 
might have had the effect of blighting his talent, and ob- 
scuring his fame. So far then from attributing the high 
celebrity to which Clinton attained, to his early advantages, 
we may rather ascribe to his great strength of mind the 
merit of being able to withstand the dazzling effect of 
premature success ; and in this very circumstance the 
candid inquirer will find a full apology for the errors to 
which he like all other mortals was sometimes exposed. 
Of his errors, however, it is not my business to speak, nor 
have they left any trace behind them, in the shape of per- 
manent injury to his country. Whatever they were, they 
recoiled upon his own head, and an impartial posterity will 
not record them against him. 



14 

Clinton received his early education at a period ex- 
tremely unfavourable. The long revolutionary contest 
had driven from their quiet occupations to take a share in 
active struggles, on one or the other side, nearly all who 
were eminent in the profession of instructers. Of the 
ancient academies of the state, but one was kept even upon 
a tolerable footing, and even this felt for a moment the 
devastating effects of the struggle. In this, although 
crippled of its means, was Clinton compelled to seek the 
foundation of his future usefulness. His literary produc- 
tions may, notwithstanding, be quoted as splendid instances 
of the power, that genius and industry can exert in forming 
the taste and improving the style ; yet, it must be admitted 
that the critical eye will occasionally detect a want of those 
graces, that an early and accurate acquaintance with classic 
models can alone bestow. 

If the subject of our eulogy, the near relative of the 
chief magistrate of our state, and the son of one of its most 
distinguished citizens, were thus condemned to suffer from 
the want of sufficient means of elementary education, what, 
may we stop to inquire, must have been the condition of 
the mass of the people 1 How highly ought we to appre- 
ciate the advantages we now enjoy, in means of instruction 
diffused through every section of our state, and brought to 
the doors and within the means of the humblest of our 
citizens. To attain this happy state of things, Clinton lent 
his powerful aid ; and if not the first to propose the present 
system, his voice was not unimportant in obtaining the 






15 

munificent endowments our common schools now enjoy. 
It is, perhaps, to be lamented that the enlightened mind of 
Clinton should not have entered more fully into the detail 
of these establishments, for he would unquestionably have 
seen and obviated the odious distinction that now exists 
between those educated in them, and those taught in our 
higher seminaries, in consequence of the exclusion of the 
ancient languages from their course of instruction : a 
feature, which it would take but little argument to show 
to be pregnant with evil, and even subversive of the great 
ends to which they might be rendered applicable. 

If, however, the boyhood of Clinton were doomed to be 
spent without a perfect enjoyment of all those aids and 
facilities which experience has shown to be so important in 
training the mind, brighter prospects dawned upon his 
youth. The halls, in which we are now assembled, had 
been closed to the student of literature and science during 
the whole period of the revolutionary war. In the place 
of the youthful aspirant for academic honours, the dormi- 
tories and lecture rooms had been filled in turn, with the 
wounds, the disease, and the misery of two contending 
armies. But no sooner was the struggle at an end, than 
the fathers of our freedom* turned their attention to the 

* Among these it would be an act of injustice were I not to name par- 
ticularly ; the late Hon. James Duane, then Mayor of the City of New- 
York, whose services in the re-establishment of the College were all- 
important. 



16 

restoration of the building to its original purposes, and 
strove to fill the vacant chairs with the ablest men within 
their reach. The subject of our eulogy, burning with 
honourable zeal, first presented himself to demand the privi- 
lege of matriculation, and thus stands at the head of the cat- 
alogue of the revived institution. To his successors he fur- 
nished a most honourable example of diligence, industry, and 
application. The influence of emulation, which is in many 
minds almost essential, as a stimulus to exertion, was indeed 
wanting, for the number of those who joined him in his 
collegiate career was too small to call it forth ; yet this 
was not necessary to excite him. He in consequence left 
behind him a character for sedulous improvement of the 
opportunities within his reach, that has never been sur- 
passed by any of his successors. 

The very atmosphere of an ancient seminary of learn- 
ing, brings to a well regulated mind a series of associations, 
that often conduce to eminence, even when the teachers 
themselves have degenerated from the former glories of the 
institution. But Clinton was fortunate in meeting with 
instructers qualified to appreciate and cultivate his talent, 
and to direct it to advantageous ends. The classical 
department was directed by the Rev. Dr. Cochran, a ripe 
and eminent scholar, who still fills the office of an instruc- 
ter of youth in the honourable and elevated station of 
President of King's College, Nova Scotia. Of another of 
the teachers, it is in this building sufficient to mention the 
name, to convey to all a clear idea of the advantages that 



17 

must have been derived by his pupils from his instructions. 
This was the late Rt. Rev. Benjamin Moore, whose services 
to this institution every alumnus will at once appreciate ; 
and who in a wider field of usefulness, diffused blessings 
upon all who came within the sphere of his active 
piety, and mild benevolence.* To these useful and 
learned instructers Clinton was fond, to the latest period 
of his valued life, of acknowledging his obligations. But 
I cannot help believing that his own future character, 
and that of his public services, were influenced in a greater 
degree by another professor. One, who for a quarter of a 
century filled with distinguished ability and usefulness, what 
his powerful exertions finally rendered the most important of 
the chairs. Many who hear me will at once recognize the 
useful and valuable instructer to whom I allude — the late 
Dr. John Kemp, to whom they, with myself and many 
others, are under the deepest obligations. 

Under the tuition of Dr. Kemp, Clinton laid the foun- 
dation of that acquaintance with the true principles of 
internal improvement, and I may add, acquired the basis 
of those clear views of national policy, which he afterwards 
so fully developed, and applied with such advantage to his 
native state, and the Union at large. The capabilities of 
the interior of this state for the opening of internal navi- 
gable communications, early attracted the attention of this 
able instructer, and were annually illustrated by him in his 

* See Note A. 

3 



18 

courses of lectures. The author of the memoir of Clinton 
has cited a letter written by Dr. Kemp to his friend and 
instructer the celebrated Dr. Beattie, wherein these natural 
facilities were described. At that early period, and with 
anticipations of the rising prosperity of our country less 
sanguine than one of her own sons would naturally have 
felt, he probably did not proceed as far as a more developed 
state of our resources, and a more enlightened view of the 
progress of our state, enabled Clinton to do. But in the 
general features of his opinions, there was a strong resem- 
blance, as many who now hear me cannot fail to remember, 
to those leading principles that were afterwards so ably 
argued by Clinton in a more public manner. 

With these enlightened ideas both of the value of 
canals, and of the true means of providing for their con- 
struction, Dr. Kemp took a most lively interest in the 
measures adopted by the state for exploring the route of 
the western navigation ; and in 1810, when the surveys 
were in progress, his anxiety led him to make a tour to the 
shores of Lake Erie,* the object of which was to ascertain, 
for his own satisfaction, whether a direct communication 
with that great inland sea, and the vast bodies of water 
connected with it were practicable or not ; for he felt such 
intense interest in the subject that he was not content to 
wait, until the more slow progress of a regular survey, 
should make the feasibility of this all-important feature of 

* See Note B. 



19 

the project known to the public. Of the practicability "of 
this he was at once satisfied by the use of that tact which 
is the characteristic of those who are habituated to examine 
a country in reference to its physical geography.* 

It is in truth the privilege of elevated science, to take in 
at a single glance, circumstances and results, that the ordi- 
nary observer only reaches through painful and laborious 
examination. He returned with a conviction that the 
scheme, such as his most sanguine hopes had depicted it, 
was practicable, and rejoiced in the prospects he believed 
to be opening to his adopted country. Hence he felt and 
expressed in the strongest terms his disappointment at the 
tenor of the report made by the commissioners to the 
legislature in 1811 — a report which from the wildness and 
extravagance of the plan it proposed, he considered as 
likely to defeat the whole object, and fitted to postpone 
for years a scheme he knew to be practicable. 

This report was drawn up by Gouverneur Morris,f who, 
by his age, his long public service, his talent, and his elo- 
quence, exercised a sway among his colleagues that was 
most unfortunate in its effects, and for a time caused the 
utter abandonment of all hopes of uniting the lakes to the 
Hudson. In this report the language of fancy and imagin- 
ation was substituted for the cool course of argument which 
can alone carry conviction to those who are qualified to 
judge of the merits of such an enterprise ; and it pointed 

* See Note B. t See Note C. 



20 

out principles and modes of execution so erroneous, that 
even the tyro in engineering could not fail to pronounce 
them impracticable. 

I may be thought to have digressed beyond the scope 
of my present duty in dwelling upon the character and 
views of Dr. Kemp. But as I am satisfied that his instruc- 
tions had a most powerful influence in determining the 
direction, in which the transcendent talent of Clinton 
became at length most useful to his country, I could not 
refrain from thus stating his merits. It is besides due to 
you as alumni, and to your Alma Mater, that these circum- 
stances should be made known. In thus naming, and 
urging the merits of his teacher, I cannot depreciate the 
merits of Clinton. These stand upon their own ground, 
and are supported by the happy issue of his labours. 
In the present state of the world, when the principle of the 
division of labour is carried to such an extent, not only in 
the works of body, but in those of mind, the most labo- 
rious and successful teacher, can rarely be directly instru- 
mental in the execution of any great work. It is enough 
both of glory and reward to him, that his pupils shall, in 
their future life, apply to valuable purposes the elementary 
principles with which he has imbued them. Although he 
may have struck the spark by which the future blaze has 
been enkindled, no part of its brightness can illumine his 
own humble and laborious path ; but in the fame and 
honours of his pupils, he will feel himself rewarded in a 
manner even more grateful than he could have been, had 



21 

he himself achieved all which has been accomplished by 
their separate labours.* 

When Clinton, in the year 1816, was called upon to 
draw the memorial of the citizens of New-York, and when 
he assumed the responsible and active direction of the new 
board of commissioners, which in compliance with the 
request of that memorial was appointed, the value of his 
correct and true view of the principles of internal commu- 
nication, and his enlightened estimate of state policy 
became apparent. His course was no longer shackled by 
the preponderating influence of one to whose opinions, 
although far less worthy of respect than his own, he had 
with a characteristic modesty, I may almost say diffidence, 
deferred on the former occasion. Deviating now, alike 
from the bold and imaginative views of Morris, and the 
timid policy of the engineers, the first report of this new 
board, presented to the legislature a plan feasible and prac- 
ticable in all its parts ; no prominent feature of which has 
it been found necessary to alter. In spite of the vague 
and crude notions that some entertained upon this subject, 
nay, even of the clear and enlightened views of others, and 
which are now brought forward in order to dim the lustre 
of Clinton's actions, as the sources of his information and 
the basis of his arguments, I cannot but see in that memo- 
rial, and in this report, the application of correct and true 

* See"NoteD. 



22 

principles early implanted, in his rich and vigorous mind, 
where by careful cultivation, and great labour on his part, 
they finally produced ripe and glorious fruit. 

Here let me again digress, to express the honest pride 
I feel as an alumnus of Columbia College, when I reflect 
that we can reckon among her sons those who have been 
the principal instruments in completing the two improve- 
ments that have done more for the prosperity of the United 
States, than all the other and innumerable mechanical 
inventions of which our country can boast. Need I say 
that I mean the canal policy of the State of New-York, and 
the application of steam to navigation. That the world will 
ascribe the chief honour of the first of these to Clinton, 
is a point I shall hereafter attempt to illustrate. The 
second might still have been wanting, had it not been for 
the liberal and enlightened views which directed the inqui- 
ries of our departed brother Robert L. Livingston, and 
which still animate our living associate John Stevens, of 
Hoboken. To the first, Fulton was indebted for an oppor- 
tunity, and the means of bringing his genius into useful 
employment ; to the second, in addition to the most liberal 
and spirited application of his private fortune to experi- 
ments on steam navigation, we owe the devotion of the 
rising talent of his son to the same great object ; and the 
latter has carried the steam-boat to a state of perfection 
that Fulton, in his most sanguine moments, never antici- 
pated, and which the latest European book on the subject 
has pronounced to be impossible. Between these two 



23 

great schemes, there is this important difference, that the 
one. was an application of ancient and well established 
principles to new and valuable ends ; and hence the efforts 
of the mere engineer can hardly be considered as having 
had much influence upon the success of the project ; while 
in the other, new and untried, the genius of the engineer 
obscures the merit of those who had the intelligence to 
foresee his success, and stimulate him to the enterprize. 
Hence, in the former case, the name of Clinton will alone 
be quoted in after ages ; while in the other, that of Fulton 
may obscure the fame of Livingston, and that of the elder 
Stevens merge in the honours of his son. 

Emerging from our College with its highest honours, 
and fraught with all the learning its then slender establish- 
ment could furnish, Clinton entered, after no long interval, 
into active life. His manhood was spent in public services 
of the most varied and important character. We see him 
by turns, the eloquent and enlightened legislator, the active 
and zealous municipal officer, the learned and impartial 
judge, the dignified and public-spirited chief magistrate. 
We find him at every step, the advocate and supporter of 
all schemes of charity and benevolence ; the promoter and 
leader in works of internal improvement ; and by a rare 
combination of pursuits, see him devoting his hours of 
leisure, and the intervals, when by political vicissitudes he 
was left out of the public service, to the cultivation of 
science. In this, the mere solace and amusement of those 



24 

hours not devoted to the direct service of his country, he 
made a progress that raises him far beyond the herd of 
amateur savans, and places him in the rank of the pro- 
fessional naturalist. His success in this branch of knowl- 
edge was such as to show, to what a high eminence he 
might have attained, had he devoted himself entirely to 
scientific investigations. But had he done so, his more 
important labours would have been lost to his country. 
Still he may be cited as an example of the value of a taste 
for science, which forms a sure and safe resource for the 
most active mind, in times of despondency, and the failure 
of long cherished hopes. 

No politician in truth ever experienced more of fluctu- 
ating fortune in his career ; yet in the practice of a sound 
philosophy he bore his successes and reverses with the 
same equanimity : an equanimity the more remarkable 
when we consider the aspiring ambition with which he was 
actuated. 

Ambition, even ill directed, has been well denominated 
the infirmity of noble minds. But when it seeks its grati- 
fication, by the promotion of measures, and plans, that 
diffuse wealth and happiness throughout a whole nation, it 
becomes a virtue of the highest description. Such was the 
ambition of Clinton, which although urged against him by 
his political opponents as almost a crime, has left indelible 
traces of its happy influence upon the fate and fortunes of 
a mighty nation. 



25 

Next to his philosophic equanimity, would I commemo- 
rate his disinterestedness. The era of Clinton's public 
services was one, wherever mere party questions were not 
concerned, as venal and corrupt as perhaps any age or 
country has ever witnessed. In the schemes that inter- 
ested men so frequently brought before our legislature, the 
name and influence of Clinton might at all times, whether he 
actually swayed a vast majority, or were merely supported 
by a small band of devoted friends, have been of the utmost 
value ; yet, while hardly any other prominent party leader 
escaped the suspicion of acting from unworthy motives, 
while several were actually proved to have been partici- 
pators in gross and unprincipled corruption, no breath of 
reproach tarnished the reputation of Clinton. His enemies, 
and even the passive, but heated instruments of party vio- 
lence, never ventured even to intimate that any act of 
Clinton had ever been influenced by mercenary motives. 

So also, the position Clinton so long held as a Canal 
Commissioner, enabled him to have foreseen changes in the 
value of property, before others could have anticipated 
them, or to have been a hidden participater in lucrative 
contracts. Yet there is no case where it can even be 
suspected, that the idea of making an undue use of the 
advantages of his position ever entered into his mind. 

To those who know the weakness of our nature, the 
readiness with which principle yields to temptation, and 
the facility that often ^exists for hiding such yielding from 
the world, no praise can be more exalted than that of a 



26 

strict adherence to integrity in such cases, particularly when 
the moral sense of the community appears, in some 
measure, blunted by general corruption, and the tempta- 
tion held out by opportunities is enhanced by the pressure 
of pecuniary difficulties. To such difficulties, this very 
disinterestedness had, we lament to say, exposed Clinton. 
Although holding, at times, offices and perquisites, that in 
the hands of a covetous person might have been made sure 
sources of wealth, we find him, throughout his life despising 
those gains which required a sacrifice of his lofty principles, 
and devoting his whole energies of mind, in the midst of 
honourable poverty, to the service of his country. 

But the most remarkable and prominent feature in the 
character of our late distinguished associate, and which 
in truth separates him from nearly the whole tribe of pro- 
fessional politicians, is this : in determining his plans and 
fixing his principles of action, he always looked to the great 
public ends of his measures ; canvassed their merits upon 
a broad view of their relations to the general prosperity, 
and left out of sight their immediate bearing upon mere 
party questions. We hence find him pursuing in all cases 
a steady and unvarying course to his purpose ; and while 
the waves of party ebbed or flowed, alternately bearing 
him forward with accelerated impulse, or retarding him with 
impetuous resistance, straining with equal energy to the 
accomplishment of his great and patriotic designs. A poli- 
tician from his childhood, and engaged in some of the most 



27 

desperate struggles for power, that have ever been witnessed 
in our country, it would be arrogating to him a character 
more than human, to say, that he never was compelled to 
move with unworthy associates, never bore the badge of a 
mistaken policy, or that his ardent and ambitious temper- 
ament was never hurried into acts, that his own cooler 
judgment would have disapproved. But this much can be 
asserted without dispute, that whenever measures were 
coolly planned by himself, they looked to no ephemeral or 
party object, and were steadily pursued, to the loss fre- 
quently of his popularity for the moment, and the temporary 
distraction of his political influence. The same party which 
in 1812 rejected him from their ranks, joined, in 1816, in 
his almost unanimous election as governor ; again abandoned 
and loaded him with contumely in 1818, and finally at the 
close of his life, clustered around him as their leader and 
most distinguished ornament. 

In all these changes of popular feeling, there was no 
change in the policy or practice of Clinton; the fickle 
multitude, which, at one time lauded him as a god, and at 
another covered him with obloquy, had leaders who directed, 
and partizans who trimmed to the breeze of varying opinion ; 
but Clinton had a soul too lofty, a spirit too independent 
to barter priitoiple for .popularity. Had he been inclined to 
suit his measures to the popular sentiment, to abandon his 
own schemes upon the first breath of discontent, he might 
have lived the idol of a party, spared himself many a shock 
from the estrangement of those he fancied friends, and 






28 

even bequeathed wealth to his family. But the more noble 
inheritance of character, of the reputation of the first 
citizen of the first state in the union, and made so princi- 
pally by his own exertions, would have merged in the paltry 
title of a successful demagogue, who had attained his ends 
by pandering to the vitiated taste of the mob. 

Brief as the time allowed me is, I cannot refrain from 
illustrating this point of his character. The first instance 
I shall choose is from the records of our own institution. 
Many honourable men, some of whom perhaps now hear 
me, were partakers in the generous but mistaken zeal, 
by which a fancied case of oppression was met by a for- 
cible resistance to the authority of the college, and an 
interruption of its most solemn exercises. There was 
something in the time and circumstances that made this 
otherwise unjustifiable act, appear almost like a correct 
expression of indignant public feeling. The high, and 
no doubt honourable motives, that occasioned this distur- 
bance have long since obliterated its memory as an offence ; 
were it not so, I should not have ventured to mention 
it here, even to enhance the character of the subject of 
my discourse. It fell to the lot of Clinton to investigate 
this matter as judge, and to take cognizance of it in his 
official capacity. His sound reason stripped it of the 
character of manly resistance to oppression, and left it 
naked to view, a criminal and illegal attempt to interrupt 
a necessary although painful act of discipline ; the tide of 






29 

public sentiment was turned, and our discipline restored 
to that standing in opinion which is its sole support. 

I believe there is now no dissent to the views he took of 
the merits of this case, even those who bore a part in the 
act have made a manly acknowledgment of their error ; 
yet during- the heat of the moment, and at a time when a 
change in the government of the College had just occured, 
which was felt as a wrong committed against those teachers 
whom he, in common with all other alumni, venerated^ and 
esteemed, it required, no small powers of discrimination to 
see it in its proper light, no small force of character to act 
in relation to it as duty and a just view of its merits dictated. 
These powers of discrimination, and this force of character 
enabled him to see and pursue the. proper course, but it 
was at no small expense, causing the temporary rupture of 
ties both private and political, which however he did not 
hesitate to sacrifice to public duty. 

Clinton had from his youth acted with a party, to which, 
in the course of the charges, which were made mutually by 
it and its opposing interest, the character of being more 
particularly opposed to the measures of Great Britain was 
ascribed. Nobody at the present day believes, but that the 
leaders of these great bodies were actuated in their foreign 
policy, merely by different estimates of the true interest of 
the country. But this ascription of character to the party 
in which Clinton was enrolled, drew to it vast accessions of 
strength, from those in whom the wounds of the revolu- 
tionary struggle remained unhealed. Of these all had 






30 

suffered in various ways in that embittered contest, and 
some bore upon their bodies the marks of the chains and 
shackles of floating prisons. The same course of events 
had thrown into the ranks of the opposite party, and even 
made personally obnoxious to Clinton, a few individuals 
who had borne office under the British government, during 
the long occupation of our city. 

On the breaking out of the late war these persons were 
threatened in person and property, by those who desired to 
avenge upon them the injuries received from the royal 
arms. Threats and murmurs proclaimed the approaching 
crisis, and an hour's supineness in the civil authority would 
have seen the dwellings, and perhaps the persons of the 
obnoxious, a prey to .popular fury. But the civil arm was 
then wielded by Clinton, who on this occasion, forgetting 
his early hostile impressions, the long continued struggle 
for power, and the feeling of almost personal wrong, saw 
in them only citizens of the same country, equally entitled 
with those of the purest political faith, to protection from 
all. penalties the law did not award. Thus, and entirely 
through his energy and influence, the riots that disgraced 
some of our sister cities, had here no parallel, although 
here only were the still aching wounds of the revolution in 
actual contact with the instruments by which they were 
supposed to have been inflicted. Nor must it be forgotten 
that temporary political purposes might have been sub- 
served by yielding to the popular clamour, and permitting 
the excitement to take its course. 



31 

Another instance I may cite from my own corres- 
pondence with the illustrious deceased. The revisers of 
our laws had reported an amended system of weights and 
measures. Any change in these, even for the better, would 
be sure to meet with opposition ; and although in the sys- 
tem proposed by the revisers, no alteration had been made 
that was not imperatively called for, or could be avoided 
without important sacrifices, still the opposition that has 
since broken out, on the part of those who were gainers by 
the uncertainty in which the question was involved, was 
anticipated. To be prepared for meeting this, the powerful 
aid of Clinton was sought, and immediately granted, in a 
manner which showed how little he valued temporary 
popularity, where great public interests were at stake. 
Had he lived, we should probably now have seen our state 
holding out its standards, for the imitation of the others and 
of the Union in general, instead of being compelled to wit- 
ness this system mangled, as it has just been, to make it 
suit the private ends of interested individuals. Yet the 
very proposal of this law had anticipated, and consequently 
frustrated, a favourite scheme of Clinton ; and the revisers 
who had reported it were all enrolled in the ranks of his 
political opponents. 

It is, however, in the case of the canal policy of our 
state, that this feature of Clinton's character exhibits itself 
in the boldest relief. From the time at which the question 
was first started, until these great public works were fully 
accomplished, he showed himself the steady friend of all 



32 

the measures necessary to carry them into effect, and his 
aid gradually became so important to the success of the 
scheme, and his clear and enlightened views came to exer- 
cise such a preponderating influence, not only upon the 
great general principles, but even upon the minute details, 
as to throw into the shade the most important services that 
any other individual, or even that all the friends of the 
canal system united, had rendered to the general cause. 
In these exertions he persevered steadily, neither abating 
his efforts when the credit of the canal system had sunk to 
the lowest ebb, nor relaxing them when its universal popu- 
larity seemed to remove the necessity of further watchful- 
ness. Throughout the whole history of the canal system, 
he seems to have considered it in its great general bearings 
upon national prosperity; while some supported the project 
in consequence of its being likely to benefit certain dis- 
tricts, it was again opposed by others from local motives of 
a contrary character ; while some rejected it as likely to 
clog the state with a debt, to meet which, its income would 
be far from sufficient, others urged its completion, as a 
probable source of vast revenue; or converted by the grow- 
ing popularity of the measure, rushed, from the extreme 
of enmity, into that of injudicious and hasty friendship ; 
Clinton looked upon it, independently of local circum- 
stances, of questions of finance, or of party policy ; as the 
surest bond of union between states, likely under other 
circumstances to become estranged from each other ; and 
as the means of promoting the wealth, the industry, and 



33 

the general prosperity of the State of New-York. His 
views are so clearly set forth in one of his messages to 
the legislature, that I shall quote them instead of attempting 
any illustration of my own. 

" Considering the high reputation, and the great name, 

this state has derived from her internal improvements, it is 

equally astonishing and mortifying to observe elaborate and 

systematic attempts to depreciate their utility or arrest their 

progress. It is manifestly a superficial and uncandid view 

of the subject, to confine an estimate of its benefits to an 

excess of income over the interest of expenditure ; and yet 

this standard of appreciation has been adopted. Artificial 

navigation was established for public accommodation, for 

the conveyance of articles to and from markets, and revenue 

is a subordinate object. It was never intended as a primary 

object to fill the coffers of the state, but to augment the 

general opulence, to animate the springs of industry, and 

to bring to every man's door an easy and economical 

means of access to the most advantageous places of sale 

and purchase. To narrow down this momentous and 

comprehensive subject, to a mere question of dollars and 

cents, is to lose sight of the great elements of individual 

opulence, of public wealth, and national prosperity. It 

excludes from consideration the hundred millions of dollars 

which have, in all probability, been added to the value of 

real estate, the immense appreciation of all the products of 

agriculture, which were formerly shut out in a great degree 

5 



34 

from market, the solid and extensive establishment of inland 
trade ; the vast accessions to our marketable productions ; 
the unbounded augmentation of our marine navigation, 
and external commerce ; the facility, rapidity, and economy 
of communication ; the creation of a dense population, and 
the erection and increase of villages, towns, and cities ; and 
the most efficient encouragement of agriculture and the arts, 
by a cheap supply of materials for fabrics, and of markets 
for accommodation." 

Actuated and animated by such views, need we wonder 
that in distant parts of our country, and in foreign nations, 
no other name is known in connexion with the canals of 
the State of New-York, except that of Clinton ; and the 
verdict of these remote districts, is the type of what will be 
the sentence of posterity. Other men have no doubt been 
eminently and especially useful ; their respective acts have 
been ably set forth and impartially argued in the memoir to 
which I have more than once referred, and among them all 
no name appears more conspicuous than that of our vener- 
able chairman.* It is fair and proper, nay, an act of duty 
that their several merits should be commemorated ; but 
although it may appear invidious — nay, even dangerous, to 
celebrate the acts of the illustrious dead, when there are 
many living who may claim a part of his honours, I must 
not fail in my duty, nor refrain from boldly expressing my 

* See Note E. 



35 

conviction, that while the name of Clinton is united by- 
bonds that no lapse of time can sever to the greatest public 
work of modern times, those of all his coadjutors, however 
meritorious, must gradually sink into oblivion. 

Such is the course of things. In all great human 
works, the physical strength, or mental energy of any one 
individual is far from being competent to their successful 
accomplishment, or even to their advantageous commence- 
ment. There are innumerable instances, where, without 
the most minute and extensive division of labour, the work 
would be incapable of execution, yet in them all there is 
some definite and distinctive action of some one superior 
mind ; to this we on all occasions ascribe the credit, how- 
ever laboriously or skilfully, the rest of the task may have 
been performed. Of this truth we find innumerable 
instances in every department to which human industry is 
directed. A few will suffice for our purpose. 

A chronometer is the perfection of human mechanical 
skill. Not less than twelve different sets of artists are 
employed in the original manufacture of its parts, each 
being confined to one particular piece. More than thirty 
different persons are afterwards engaged in fitting together 
these isolated portions, taken promiscuously from as many 
heaps, and in polishing and finishing them. Yet to none of 
these is the epithet of maker applied, but to the directing 
mind of the whole, to a person who may, perhaps, never 
have taken a tool in his hand, or even touched any part of 



36 

the mechanism. Yet the characteristic mode of his working 
is so impressed upon the machine, that it is considered 
unsafe to send it for repair to the workshop of any other 
artist. 

Those who have seen a splendid picture, which recently 
and perhaps still decorates the gallery of the Luxembourg, 
have, even if unskilled in the handling of great masters, 
been compelled spontaneously to acknowledge in it, a grace 
and ideal beauty, that of all the Flemish school Vandyck 
alone could bestow ; a decided character in the animals 
that are introduced in the composition, never attained 
except by Snyders, a finish and labour in the execution of 
many of the parts worthy of a Teniers. Yet to none of 
these hands can be ascribed the entire work, in which 
these varied excellencies appear as mere accessories to 
the perfection of art it exhibits. Still each of these artists, 
and others now nameless, have borne their share in the 
labour ; upon none of them however, nor upon all united, 
is the name of painter bestowed. This glorious epithet is 
the attribute of Rubens alone, whose directing mind united 
the various talents of his pupils, into one consistent and 
harmonious whole— the Triumph of the Christian Faith— 
but which may, even more justly, be entitled the triumph 
of the pictorial art.* 



* Sec Note F. 



37 

In the hall of the Belvidere stands a statue, the admira- 
tion of the civilized world. Scores of labourers toiled to 
to extract the mass from the quarry, numerous stone cutters 
united their exertions to dress it into a more shapely form, 
and artists of enviable skill and talent must have borne their 
share of labour, in fitting it for the last touches and finish of 
the master. Yet to the last alone do we ascribe the honour, 
and search with painful interest through the annals of 
the ancient world, for the name of that unrivalled sculptor 
who stamped the dignity of a deity upon the human form, 
in the semblance of the Pythian Apollo. 

A fire destroyed the ancient Basilic of the Vatican. 
Successive popes and architects toiled among the ruins, 
each with a different object, and their works were withont 
any general plan, heterogeneous, and unconnected. At 
length Michael Angelo, surveyed the incongruous mass, 
and warmed by the contemplation of the finest remains 
of Roman splendour, exclaimed "I will raise the Pantheon 
upon the temple of peace !" From that instant, the discor- 
dant parts combined in harmony, the varying and fluctuating 
designs of his predecessors were made to unite in advancing 
one common end ; and the bad taste, the vanity and the 
presumption of succeeding architects, the caprice of an 
ever-varying elective, yet despotic government, have failed 
of depriving it of that grandeur of conception, which makes 
the Church of St. Peters the most sublime edifice ever 
erected by the hand of man. 



38 

Parallel illustrations might be multiplied without number; 
every branch of art or science would furnish them ; in every 
case there is room for the preponderance of the mind of a 
single individual — the Sun of the system, around whom 
planets with satellites perform their regular course, and 
comets wheel their eccentric orbs ; all conducing to advance 
the great and single purpose, but with brightness dimmed, 
or rendered invisible, by the presence of the central lumi- 
nary. 

Such, in the work which has illustrated the annals of 
our state, and obtained for it a proud pre-eminence in the 
confederation, was Clinton — the master-spirit who gave his 
impress to the design, conceived in part by others, improved 
and extended by men of the first ability and highest patriot- 
ism ; but which in its finished aspect, its^national character, 
and its paramount importance, will be known in after ages 
by the name of our lamented brother. 

Did not even-handed justice insure this, the very acts of 
his enemies have fixed his fame in such intimate connexion 
with the Canal that no effort can now separate them. 
When Clinton was removed from the office of Canal Com- 
missioner, and when his children were refused the compen- 
sation justly earned by the labour of their father, the 
jealousy that was evinced defeated its own object. 

His envious countrymen subjected Aristides to the 
ostracism, because they were tired of hearing him called 
the just, and thus attached an epithet to his name that must 



39 

descend with it until man ceases to read, or to seek for 
knowledge ; and when an envious legislature, tired of 
hearing Clinton's praises, as the great leader of the Canal 
policy of our state, deprived him of any share in the man- 
agement, they affixed a seal to his merit that ages cannot 
efface. 



IVOTE S 



A. 

Benjamin Moore, D. D. Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the State of New-York, an alumnus of our College, 
graduated Batchelor of Arts in 1768, and Master in 1771 ; held 
the office of President of the College ad interim, in 1775 ; was 
appointed on the revival of the institution, in 1784, Professor of 
Rhetoric and Logic, which appointment he held until 1787; 
and was chosen President in the year 1801, which office he laid 
down in 1811. Dewitt Clinton entered the Junior Class in 1784, 
and graduated Batchelor in 1786 ; Bishop Moore was therefore 
the only Professor in that department during the undergraduate 
course of the former. 

B. 

Before that part of our state which lies west of the Genessee 
river was explored, it might well have been doubted, whether 
lake Erie were accessible by an artificial navigation, except 
through the gorge worn by the Niagara river. The great 
mountain ridges of our country run in four continuous chains, 
nearly parallel to each other, through the States of North Caro- 
lina and Virginia. The easternmost of these, a primitive range, 
continues separate, and crosses the states of Pennsylvania and 
New-Jersey to New-York, where it is pierced at a great depth 
by the Hudson, forming what are called the Highlands of that 
river. The other three ridges become intermingled in the 
State of Pennsylvania, and assume the form rather of a vast 
table land with deep vallies, and a few isolated peaks, than of 



42 

distinct mountain chains. The Susquehannah alone pierces this 
elevated region, but is so much embarrassed by rocks and rapids 
as to be unfit for the purposes of navigation. This high table 
land terminates to the northeast in the Shawangunk and Kaats- 
kill mountains. The first finishes what is called in Pennsyl- 
vania the Blue Ridge ; the second turns suddenly to the west- 
ward, and is seen from the heights near Albany, extending in 
a succession of lofty peaks as far as the eye can reach. But 
one important spur is set off by them to the north, which is 
pierced by the Mohawk at the Little Falls of that river. Thus 
by the deep tide channel of the Hudson, a natural navigable pas- 
gage is opened through the most formidable, if not the highest 
of our mountain ridges, while the only remaining barrier 
between the ocean and lake Ontario is pierced by the valley of 
the Mohawk, and thus gives room for an artificial navigation. 
But a person, who knows only the valley of the Hudson, and 
has seen the Kaatskill range turning suddenly westward, might, 
on inspecting the map, be led at first to infer that the Falls of 
Niagara were caused by the continuation of this line of moun- 
tains. But this is not the fact. The great Allegany range is 
not seen to the westward of lake Canandaigua, and lake Erie 
occupies a shallow basin in a great table land, through the edges 
of which its waters have worn their way ; and thus the Niagara 
river offers the rare spectacle of a fall far from any mountain 
range. Other, but far smaller streams, fall from this table land 
in the same manner ; and as a river which pursues, for a long 
time, a level nearly the same with several of them, turns towards 
the southwest, and runs into the Niagara above the falls, it was 
not difficult to infer that there was more than one practicable 
pass, wherein locks might be established, to permit a navigation 
to pass eastward without entering into lake Ontario, or being 
compelled to enter the chasm worn by the Niagara. Such on 
on examination turned out to be the case ; and two practicable 
routes were actually reported by the engineers, of which that 
by Lockport was preferred. 



43 

C. 

Gouverneur Morris was also one of those alumni in whom 
Columbia College takes a just and honourable pride. The 
classmate of Benjamin Moore, John Stevens, Peter Van Shaick, 
and Gulian Verplanck, he was the cotemporary at College of 
Richard Harrison, John Jay, Egbert Benson, Robert L. Living- 
ston, and Henry Rutgers, and even in such a constellation of 
useful talent and brilliant genius, shone with no common splen- 
dour. My remarks, it will therefore be at once seen, were 
made with no view of derogating from his great and acknowl- 
edged merit, as a scholar, an orator, a statesman, and diploma- 
tist. He has in truth so much of honour, really and fairly 
merited, that his fame can afford to part with the claims that 
have been urged for him, in relation to the canal policy of our state, 
without losing any of its splendour. At the time of his education, 
Science had not yet taken its just and proper standing by the side of 
Literature in Columbia College; it cannot therefore derogate from 
his character, that he should have treated questions of internal 
improvement, in strains of classic and almost poetic eloquence, 
rather than in the cool method of philosophic discussion. 

D. 

As it appears that this part of my discourse was misunder- 
stood by some of my auditors, some explanation may perhaps be 
necessary. It certainly was not intended by me to arrogate for 
Dr. Kemp honour other than that which any able teacher may 
claim in the subsequent honours of his pupils. 

The policy of opening a direct navigable communication to 
lake Erie was spoken of by him as early as 1805, when I 
attended his lectures on Geography, and probably before that 
date. But this was accompanied by a strong expression of 
doubt whether the face of the country would admit of it. When 
he assured himself that his doubt was ill-founded, he commu- 
nicated the fact, at the moment, to no other person but myself, 
who had the good fortune to be his travelling companion. It 
was no doubt communicated to his class in 1811, but before that 



44 

time the report of the commissioners was made public, and his 
conviction, however agreeable to himself, had no influence upon 
the subsequent operations. No communication ever took place 
on the subject with Dewitt Clinton ; for it unfortunately hap- 
pened that these two men, who mutually esteemed each other, 
had become estranged by the conflicts of party. For Dr. Kemp, 
although he had, from personal attachment to Gov. George 
Clinton, moved with the Republican party up to 1799, became, 
in consequence of early impressions in favour of the policy of 
maintaining a respectable military and naval force, and from 
other predilections, that might now perhaps be called aristo- 
cratic, a decided Federalist. 

E. 

Robert Troup, Esq. who at one period in the history of the 
canal policy of the state, was second in the character of his 
useful services to Clinton alone, having been the main instru- 
ment in awakening the minds of the people of the Western 
District of the state, to the importance of the work. For an 
account of his valuable labours see the Appendix to Hosack's 

Memoir. 

F. 

The fact that the Atelier of Rubens was a great workshop, 
in which pictures were fabricated under his direction, receiving 
frequently no more of their mechanical execution from his own 
hand, than the mere finish, is too well known to need illustra- 
tion. The picture which is here referred to was painted for 
the Duke of Olivares, prime minister of Philip IV. of Spain, 
and was originally placed in the Church of a Carmelite Convent, 
built by him at Locches, near Madrid. During the occupation 
of Spain by the French it was removed to Paris, and placed 
beside the other pictures of Rubens, painted for Catharine of 
Medicis, in the Gallery of the Luxembourg. Its merit, however, 
far eclipses any of these, and of all pictures I have ever seen, it 
is calculated to give the highest opinion of the skill and science 
of the painter- 



DISCOURSE 



ON THE 



CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



DEWITT CLINTON, 

DELIVERED 

BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 

AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY, 6th MAY, 1829; 

BY 

JAMES RENWICK, M. A. 

Professor of Natural Experimental Philosophy and Chemistr}'. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REO.UEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



NEW-YORK: 
G. & C. & H. CARVILL. 



1829. 



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